Harry P. Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Since I just finished the Minicraft MGTC, my buddy Skip Jordan suggested I built it's spiritual ancestor, so here goes! This is the 1/16 scale Minicraft issue of the Jaguar SS100... It looks to be a pretty nice kit... lots of parts, high level of detail... but like almost every Minicraft kit, it has its flaws, like flash, mold misalignment on some parts trees, and too large attachment points for the prts on the trees (which is really only a problem on the chrome tree, as most parts when removed have big "scars" in the chrome where they were attached). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted April 7, 2015 Author Share Posted April 7, 2015 The chassis is made up of separate frame rails and crossmembers. The X-member is molded in one piece, which makes chassis assembly a lot faster and easier.. I assembled the basic chassis and front and rear springs and axles, etc, then sprayed the whole thing semi-glosss black as a unit. Much easier to do it that way than to paint each individual component and then assemble. The only thing I added to the chassis are simulated bolts on the upper shock arms in front, made of hexagonal styrene rod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted April 7, 2015 Author Share Posted April 7, 2015 Once I had the chassis built, I started on the engine. I like to build subassemblies that will be a single color first, then paint those subassemblies as a unit... like the transmission, the oil pan, and the engine block, for example: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chunkypeanutbutter Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Should be an interesting build! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted April 7, 2015 Author Share Posted April 7, 2015 I made boots for the spark plugs out of bits of aluminum tube and painted them flat black before installation. You can see that I stuck them on the end of shish kabob skewers to hold them while I painted them. These skewers make great "handles" to hold various parts for painting... they have 1,001 uses! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaughingIndian Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 This is great ... I did this kit last year ... now I'm gonna see how it SHOULD have been done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twokidsnosleep Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Another great build to watch. Love your WIP's Lightning fast builder with awesome details Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobraman Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Looking forward to watching your progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted April 7, 2015 Author Share Posted April 7, 2015 I like to skip around when I build a kit... I usually don't do step 1, then step 2, then 3, etc. I decided to put aside the engine and chassis for a while and handle some of the details. Let's start with the radiator shell. It has the open mesh molded solid. I could have tried a black wash to bring out the mesh detail, but the mesh is so faint and shallowly molded that I didn't think a wash would do. Here's the kit piece as is... I decided I had to open up the grille shell and replace the molded-in "mesh" with real, open mesh. Also, the plating on this piece was really nice, so I wanted to save it and not mess it up while I reworked the shell. That meant cutting out the mesh area using a couple of Dremel cutting/grinding bits, and being very careful and working slowly... Once I had the shell opened up, I cleaned up the bare edges, and added a strip of foil to cover the bare edges. Then I made a template of the opening, using an old business card. I folded the card, and held it over the outside of the shell and traced the opening from the inside. I added a bit all around so that my new mesh piece would have enough edges so that I could glue the mesh in place from the inside. Then I transferred my template to a piece of foberglass window screen, cut the mesh piece out, sprayed it gloss black, then "chromed" the mesh with Spaz Stix: And here's the end result: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjordan2 Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Terrific. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twokidsnosleep Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 (edited) Yep, awesome, was hoping you were going to do that Can't wait to see what happens with the wire wheels Edited April 7, 2015 by Twokidsnosleep Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjordan2 Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Also an excellent job replacing the engine crank hole. How did you do that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobraman Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Grill looks much better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junkman Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 These skewers make great "handles" to hold various parts for painting... they have 1,001 uses! You can even use them for eating Kebab! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twokidsnosleep Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Also an excellent job replacing the engine crank hole. How did you do that? Looks like he just cut around it and left the original in place???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted April 7, 2015 Author Share Posted April 7, 2015 You can even use them for eating Kebab! Hmmm... you may be right! Looks like he just cut around it and left the original in place???? Exactly. I just carefully cut around it using that need-nose grinding bit in the photo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted April 7, 2015 Author Share Posted April 7, 2015 Yep, awesome, was hoping you were going to do that Can't wait to see what happens with the wire wheels Get ready to be disappointed... The kit wires are staying. I've seen various methods of making wire wheels, including using actual individual bits of wire and drilling the rims and hubs and replacing the spokes one by one by lacing the replacements in the correct pattern with the correct overlay and spacing on the rim. And I've seen the method where you wrap a length of wire in a certain pattern around the hubs and the rims (that's actually how the wheels in the Mercedes SS I posted a while ago were made, but the kit rims and hubs were already engineered for that process))... but I am way too lazy to even think about making scratchbuilt wire wheels in 1/16 scale that would actually look good and be "in scale." Imagine how hard it would be to make 1/16 scale wire wheels with spokes in scale! That's more trouble than I'm willing to go through. If this was a 1/8 scale model, maybe. But at this tiny size the wheels are just a hair more than an inch across). No way am I going to even try that. PS: I've built my share of spoke-by-spoke wire wheels for my Pocher kits. Those are both much larger (1/8 scale) and engineered that way from the start, with pre-cut individual spokes, individual nipples, and hubs and rims with the all the appropriate connection points already accounted for... and even then, building those wheels is a huge PITA! I can't imagine how frustrating it would be to scratchbuild wire wheels at half that scale. Gerald Wingrove can do it... I pass! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted April 7, 2015 Author Share Posted April 7, 2015 Let's build the dash. The real car's dash was steel, painted body color. But the kit includes a neat "wood" decal to simulate a wooden dash, and I like that look, even though it's not technically factory correct. So Plan A was to go with the kit-supplied decal... Notice in the above photo, however, that the dash has all the control knobs and switches molded in place. Getting that dash decal to snuggle down around all of those protrusions, and then detail paitning all of the switches and knobs, would be impossible. So I decided to remove all surface protrusions to allow the decal to be used. I drilled a small locator hole where each knob/switch had been (and added a couple of locator holes for items missing on the kit dash) to guide me when I replaced them all with scratchbuilt items: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted April 7, 2015 Author Share Posted April 7, 2015 But when the decal got wet, this is what happened... Time for Plan B... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twokidsnosleep Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Thank god you didn't do the wood Skip would have had a kitten if you made a wood dash on the Jag, factory body paint only I know you can do wire wheels, seen the beautiful work on your Pocher Alfa's, but don't blame you at all for passing at the 1/16 scale wires My eyes and fingers hurt just thinking about trying that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted April 7, 2015 Author Share Posted April 7, 2015 Oh, I'm doing the wood... just in a different way... Skip's just going to have to deal with it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjordan2 Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 The horror. The horror. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 Will be watching this wip closely. I have one in my stash to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted April 8, 2015 Author Share Posted April 8, 2015 Ok, the decal idea didn't go so well... I do want a "wooden" dash, so there are two ways to go... either cut a piece of basswood to shape, drill out for all the gauges and control knobs, sand smooth, stain, sand again, then several coats of Future. Lots of work for such a small dash. Option two: just paint the dash a "wood" color... at this scale, it would be visually almost impossible to tell if the dash was painted or real wood. I went with Option two. I simply painted the dash to look like wood, and added bezels to the main gauges made of rings cut off of aluminum tubing. The minor gauges should have bezels, too, but I don't have the correct diameter tubing on hand, so I'll add those later. I scratchbuilt all the knobs, switches, and warning lights on the dash, everything made of aluminum tubing and sewing pins. The large black knob near the center of the dash is actually a leftover Pocher breather cap! And the slot for the ignition key is a leftover Pocher screw, the slot in the screw head makes a good key slot. And yes, I know the gauge faces are not factory correct (they are the kit supplied decals)... but since my Jaguar owner switched out the stock dash and replaced it with a custom piece, he also switched out the gauges and replaced them with aftermarket ones... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobraman Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 Dash looks great ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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